Paskita (Paskalina) Konfino (später Guttmann)
- Born on: 24.10.1917
- Birthplace: Sofia
- Category: Diploma program
- Right of domicile: Korfu (Korfu),
- Citizenship: Griechisch
The English version is based on a translation by Artificial Intelligence. The authentic version is the German version.
Biography up to the time of Austria’s ‘Anschluss’
Paskita (also: Pasquita) Konfino (also: Confino) was the daughter of the merchant Isak (also: Isaac E.) Konfino and his wife Natalia (born in 1887 in Belgrade, the daughter of Avram and Bukas Paskva Mošič). She had a sister, Klara (born 11 August 1911 in Sofia), who later, presumably after marriage, took the surname Josifov.
After attending a grammar school in her hometown of Sofia, Paskita Konfino enrolled on a degree course at the University for World Trade during the winter semester of 1937/38. In the following semester, she transferred to the University of Vienna, where she was also enrolled for just one semester. Although she had already given up her flat at Pyrkergasse 21/1 (19th district of Vienna) on 22 March 1938, the Jewish student continued to attend courses at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Vienna during the summer semester of 1938. However, Konfino returned to her home country of Bulgaria by the end of that semester at the latest. In the capital, Sofia, she married Max Guttmann (born 1 May 1901 in Cairo) on 23 October 1938, with whom she had a daughter, Evelyn.
Emigration to the United States of America
Together with her husband, who was also Jewish, and their daughter, Paskita managed to emigrate to the USA. At some unknown point, the young family first travelled from Sofia to Plovdiv, where Evelyn was born on 11 April 1940. Presumably from here or from Sofia, where the three Jewish emigrants had received their visas on 23 November 1940, the Guttmann family travelled to Max’s country of birth, Egypt, as both Paskita and Max and Evelyn held Egyptian citizenship when they finally arrived in the United States. What is certain, in any case, is that the young family set sail from the Indian port city of Bombay (now Mumbai) on 14 January 1941 aboard the S.S. President Harrison and arrived in New York on 22 February 1941 with 120 dollars in their pockets. Both Max and Paskita applied for American citizenship in New York on 25 June 1941.
On 4 March 2004, Paskita Guttmann, née Konfino, died at the age of 86 in the Flushing district of New York. She was buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in New York (Kew Gardens, Queens). Her husband, who was 17 years her senior and had died in New York in December 1980, was already laid to rest in the same grave.
Her name is inscribed on the memorial, which was unveiled on 8 May 2014 on the campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Family members in the Shoah
Whilst the former student at 'Welthandel' Paskita Konfino survived the Holocaust and the Second World War in the United States, it is a matter of record that several of her relatives on her mother’s side fell victim to Nazi persecution of Jews. These included almost all of her mother Natalia’s siblings:
- Sarina Alkalay, born in 1882 in Belgrade and living at 10 Obilićev venac in the same city, which had been severely damaged in April 1941 under the command of the Austrian war criminal Alexander Löhr. She was killed on 14 December 1941 at the age of 50 in the Sajmište concentration camp in Belgrade.
Her husband, Max Alakalay (born in 1871, son of Salomon Mordehaj and Lenka Alkalay), was also killed there in December 1941. - Also on 14 December 1941, the widowed Neli Demajo, who had lived at 8 Knićaninova Street in Belgrade, was murdered in Sajmište at the age of 48.
- As early as November 1941, David Mošić, who had lived at 7 Gospodar Jevremova Street in Belgrade, had been killed in a camp.
Of Paskita’s maternal uncles and aunts, only Max Moshe Mošič (born 22 August 1885 in Belgrade) survived the Holocaust. He lived to a ripe old age, passing away in 1978 in Pardes Hana (Israel). His wife, however, Eliza Else Mošič (née Neuwelt), who was from Vienna (born 17 June 1891), shared the fate of her sisters-in-law and brother-in-law: she too was killed at the Sajmište concentration camp in 1942. The son of Max Moshe and Eliza Else Mošič, Aleksandar Avram Fredi Mošić (born 21 May 1919), survived the Holocaust like his father. He died in Belgrade in 2015 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery there.
Author: Johannes Koll
Source material
Geni.com, Eintrag von Emil Eskenazy Lewinger zu Natalia Konfino (geborene Mošič), http://www.geni.com/people/Natalia-Konfino/6000000042462706777 [Stand: 21. Mai 2016, abgerufen 26. Mai 2026].
MyHeritage.at zu Klara Josifov (geb. Konfino), https://myheritage.at [26. Mai 2026].
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Studierendenkarteikarte.
Gedenkbuch für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus an der Universität Wien 1938, Eintrag zu Paskita Konfino, https://gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at/page/1/person/paskita-konfino [20. Februar 2025].
Meldeauskunft des Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchivs, GZ MA 8 – B-MEW – 174396/2013.
Ancestry.com, New York, USA, bundesstaatliche und föderale Einbürgerungsregister, 1794-1943, Antrag von Pasquita Guttmann vom 25. Juni 1941, Deklarationsnummer 492146, http://www.ancestry.com/ [22. Mai 2026].
Ancestry.com: New York, USA, Listen ankommender Passagiere und Besatzungen, 1820-1957, http://www.ancestry.com/ [22. Mai 2026].
Ancestry.com, New York, USA, bundesstaatliche und föderale Einbürgerungsregister, 1794-1943, Antrag von Max Guttmann vom 25. Juni 1941, Deklarationsnummer 492111, http://www.ancestry.com/ [22. Mai 2026].
Ancestry.com: USA, Sozialversicherungsindex, 1936-2007, Eintrag zu Pasquita Guttmann, SV-Nr. 123200878 und ebd., USA, Sterbeindex der Sozialversicherung, 1935-2014, http://www.ancestry.com/ [22. Mai 2026].
Find a grave, zu Pasquita Guttmann, https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/287379969/pasquita-guttmann und Max Guttmann, https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/287379968/max-guttmann [22. Mai 2026].
Ancestry.com, USA, Sterbeindex der Sozialversicherung, 1935-2014 zu Max Guttmann, http://www.ancestry.com/ [22. Mai 2026].
The Remembrance Book of Holocaust Victims in Belgrade. From archival materials of the City of Belgrade 1st District People’s Committee – жртвама Холокауста у Београду. Из архивске грађе Народног одбора I рејона града Београда, Belgrad 2014, S. 42 zur Ermordung von Sarina Alkalay.
Geni.com: Eintrag von Emil Eskenazy Lewinger zu Sarina Alkalay (Mošič), http://www.geni.com/people/Sarina-Alkalay/6000000042462949204?through=6000000042462706777#/tab/media [Stand: 21. Mai 2016, abgerufen 26. Mai 2026].
Geni.com: Eintrag von Emil Eskenazy Lewinger zu Maks Alkalay, http://www.geni.com/people/Maks-Alkalay/6000000042463907268?through=6000000042462949204 [Stand: 21. Mai 2016, abgerufen 26. Mai 2026].
The Remembrance Book of Holocaust Victims in Belgrade. From archival materials of the City of Belgrade 1st District People’s Committee – жртвама Холокауста у Београду. Из архивске грађе Народног одбора I рејона града Београда, Belgrad 2014, S. 47 zur Ermordung von Neli Demajo und S. 54 zur Ermordung von David Mošić.
Myheritage.at, Stammbäume zu Eliza Else Mošić, https://myheritage.at [26. Mai 2026] zur Ermordung von Eliza Else Mošič.
Myheritage.at, Stammbäume zu Aleksandar Avram Fredi Mošić, https://myheritage.at [26. Mai 2026].